Minutes were few and far in between for Lakers guard Darius Morris a season ago.

Despite this, Morris put in the work this summer, training at the team’s practice facility on most days. Lakers coach Mike Brown noted the second-year player’s growth.

“The one thing he’s doing a better job of is utilizing or understanding how to use his quickness to his advantage on both ends of the floor, especially offensively,” Brown said. “He’s worked extremely hard on his shooting. It was tough for us to put him out on the floor with spacing purposes, but because he’s had some time under his belt and worked extremely hard on his game, I’m excited for him.”

Brown noted the preseason will be used to determine how he will play certain guys come the regular season. In this case, Morris will be the first point guard off the bench in the team’s third preseason game.

Steve Blake, the assumed backup point guard for the regular season, will be held out of tonight’s contest.